THE AMERICAN BISONS. 5 
him to differ only in its somewhat larger size and longer, less curved horns. 
Cuvier repeated his figure and description of the American specimen in the 
first and subsequent editions of his “Ossemens Fossiles,’ and retained the 
same opinion respecting the affinities of the living and extinct bisons until 
the edition of 1825, when he admitted, in view of the slight differences 
which distinguish the aurochs from the American bison (Bison americanus), 
the fossil bison as a third species.* 
In 1825 the same specimen was also described by Dr. Richard Harlan,t 
who, believing it to be a species distinct from the aurochs, gave it the name 
of Bos latifrons, which, as will be shown later, forms the first systematic name 
any of the extinct species received. In 1827 Bojanus,t in his memoir on 
fossil oxen, in the description of his Urus priscus (seu Urus nostras), cites the 
specimen “ex America septentrionalis” described by Cuvier; it is also 
referred to by H. v. Meyer in 1832, as well as by other authors, being 
always regarded as specifically identical with the European fossil bison (Bos 
priscus, seu Bison priseus auct.). 
In 1831 Buckland, in his list of the vertebrate fossils brought by Captain 
Beechey from the ice-cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay, enumerates the remains of 
“fossil oxen,” some of which he refers to a “Bos urus” (probably meaning the 
Bison priscus of other authors), and which constitute the first remains of an 
extinct bison found in America after the original specimen described by 
Peale. They received no further notice, however, for many years. 
In 1846 the greater portion of the skull of a large extinct bison was dis- 
covered on the Brazos River, near San Felipe, Texas, together with a molar 
tooth. These were described by Dr. W. M. Carpenter,§ and formed the 
second specimens discovered in the United States. The skull seems to have 
lacked only a part of the facial bones, and the horn-cores were nearly entire. 
The specimen was of the same gigantic proportions as the one made known 
by Mr. Peale. 
In 1852 Dr. Leidy || described five molar teeth of a fossil bison, discovered 
near Natchez, Mississippi, “in association with remains of Mastodon, Equus, 
* Oss. Fos., 3d Ed., Vol. IV, p. 148. 
+ Fauna Amer., p. 273. 
t Nov. Acta, Acad. Nat. Cur., XTII, 2. 
§ Amer. Journ. Sci., 2d Ser., I, 245. 
|| Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1852, p. 117. — Memoir on the Extinct Species of American Ox, p. 9, 
pl. ii, figs. 2-7. 
